The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1318 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Krishnamurti, Jiddu
(1895–1986).
Indian religious figure and claimed
guru
. The
Theosophists
, Charles Leadbeater and Annie Besant, proclaimed him the ‘World Teacher’, the vehicle of the Lord
Maitreya
, who showed himself in human form every 2,000 years. In 1911 Krishnamurti was made head of the newly founded ‘Order of the Star in the East’ (later shortened to ‘Order of the Star’). In 1929 Krishnamurti, tired of the role assigned to him, dissolved the Order, renounced all claims to divinity, and declared that he no longer wanted disciples. Today Krishnamurti Foundations are to be found in many parts of the world which aim to set people ‘absolutely and unconditionally free’. Some of those close to him (e.g. M. Lutyens,
Krishnamurti
:
The Years of Awakening
, 1975; …
The Years of Fulfillment
, 1983) adulate him; others (e.g. R. R. Sloss,
Lives in the Shadow with Krishnamurti
, 1991) observed a more fraudulent and cynical character.
Kristallnacht
(Germ., ‘night of glass’). The night, 9 Nov. 1938, on which Nazi
anti-Semitism
in Germany moved onto a new level of ferocity:
synagogues
were burned down and Jewish-owned shops were looted and destroyed (hence the name, because the streets were covered in glass). From this point on, the mass deportations to concentration camps began. See also
HOLOCAUST
.
Kriyatantra
(division of tantric texts)
:
Kriy
-yoga
:

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